The SR-71 Blackbird The US Air Force (USAF) created the SR-71 Blackbird in the 1960s. It was a plane that could move at a speed that was more than three…
Nuclear testing At the height of the Cold War, in the early 1960s, nuclear testing was resumed by both the US and USSR. The largest thermonuclear bomb ever dropped was…
The F-102 Delta Dagger The United States Air Force’s first operational supersonic, all-weather interceptor with Mach 1 capability was the F-102 Delta Dagger. Its signature wasp-waisted delta-wing design, manufactured by…
VF-142 F-4B emergency landing A U.S. Navy McDonnell F-4B Phantom II (BuNo 150643) belonging to Fighter Squadron VF-142 Ghostriders appears in the article’s featured photograph. VF-142 served with the aircraft…
Scramble In the event of a threat, military forces need to react quickly for safety reasons. Aircraft scrambling is a part of a military aviation technique used to get an…
The SR-71 Blackbird The US Air Force (USAF) created the SR-71 Blackbird in the 1960s; it was a plane that could fly at a speed greater than three times the…
The B-47 Stratojet The first XB-47 prototype, which was built to fulfill a 1944 need, flew in December 1947 and outperformed its rivals. It had sweeping wings, jet engines in…
The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk 2,960 A-4 Skyhawk aircraft were produced by Douglas between 1954 and 1979. Known by their endearing nickname, “Heinemann’s Hot Rod” (after Douglas designer Ed Heinemann), the…
The EF-111A Raven In the 1980s and 1990s, EF-111A Ravens, often referred to as “Fat Tails” and “Spark Varks” (the F-111 is also called the Aardvark), were used as tactical…
The AIM-54 Phoenix The AWG-9 weapons control system and P&W TF30 engines were used by the F-14A Tomcat, which was built in 1968 to replace the controversial F-111B, which was…